


Voids Aren't Empty, Simply Hard To Navigate

by FrogDadUntitled



Series: Team Cisnt Heterno [7]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Acespec Aaron Hotchner, Alterous attraction, Asexual Spencer Reid, Asexuality Spectrum, Gen, Other, Queerplatonic Relationships, Trans Female Character, am i making hotch polyam??? we'll see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29483793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrogDadUntitled/pseuds/FrogDadUntitled
Summary: Hotch meets one of Beth's new friends and realizes that he might not know his emotions as well as he thought he did. And being conflicted, he goes to the smartest person he knows: Spencer Reid.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Original Female Character(s), Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid
Series: Team Cisnt Heterno [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965340
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Voids Aren't Empty, Simply Hard To Navigate

**Author's Note:**

> Started out as me wanting to infodump but instead turned into this??? enjoy???? :P

"This is Spoons." Beth gestures to the person next to her in the small cafe. She had told Hotch about a new friend she had made and simply how _amazing_ she is and how this new friend wants to meet her partner. 

Spoons is tall, although not as tall as Reid (is _anyone_ as tall as the genius is the question), with bright green and yellow hair atop her speckled brown skin. Dark eyes that gleam with a bright spark of excitement look Hotch up and down as if they were scanning him. After a moment, she smiles. "Hi, you must be Aaron."

Hotch nods, sitting down at the round metal table. He orders a medium coffee and folds his hands in front of him. "Indeed. Beth has been excited, although she's been very secretive about you."

Beth laughs, crystal clear and bright, a beautiful sound in all honesty. Hotch doesn't think he'll get old of it. "What's life without a little mystery?" She teases and Spoons sticks out her tongue. "Oh don't you start."

Hotch smiles at the pairs antics, he can see how the two became friends. They have such a similar style of dialogue and jokes, how could they _not_ , is the question.

The coffee eventually comes, Hotch taking a sip while Spoons wraps up her light joking session with Beth. "Anyways, Aaron, the partner I've heard _so_ much about," Beth turns pink, muttering a 'I can't help talking about you sometimes', which Hotch smiles more at (if he wasn't so surrounded by death at work he would too). "Tell me a little more about yourself. Favorite movies, pronouns, colors you find repulsive, the usual." 

Hotch is a little surprised at the 'pronouns' bit. He's so used to pronouns _not_ mattering for _him_ that he is more used to asking others for pronouns than the other way around. "I, uh, I don't really care. I've always just been me." He answers, trying to not seem confusing. "And Treasure Planet, I guess."

"Did you and Jack watch that last?" Beth asks, seemingly innocently, but the smirk on her lips suggests otherwise. So Hotch just sips his coffee instead.

Spoons laughs, throwing her head back to relish the feeling of such joy. "I feel you. She/her, just so you know." Hotch nods, cataloging it in his head.

The meeting continues, a dynamic falling between them. Beth and Spoons poking fun at each other, Hotch and Beth joking and flirting with each other (God, he's so happy to have met her), and Spoons and Hotch having oddly introspective conversations with the energy of one speaking about bubbles.

When Hotch gets back home (Jack gives him a big hug and babbles about his day), and texts Reid.

_What do you know about attraction_

-

Reid shows up at Hotch's apartment, after giving _many_ options of where to discuss the topic that had cropped up. Ultimately, Hotch decided that being in a place where he's most comfortable would help him process better than in a foreign place.

"Hi there Hotch." The tall, yet young, genius waves. Ey has only a notepad and pencil with xem, and upon the questioning look, explains that taking some notes might help with eir explanation.

Hotch nods. "Come in. I made coffee."

"I brought sugar." Reid absentmindedly mentions, not explaining that addition to xyr person. 

They end up in the living room, Hotch on the couch, Reid on a chair nearby. It feels oddly like a therapy session, except this time it's just a very curious and very intelligent young doctor and eir boss.

Reid clears xyr throat, crossing a leg over xyr other and holding the knee. "So, attraction. It falls under a lot of categories. There's romantic and sexual, the ones most people know and the ones most people feel in tandem. There's also aesthetic and platonic, both fairly self-explanatory. Platonic actually can get more complicated depending on the strength of the attraction, and there's thousands of accounts of friends moving into a home together for most if not all their lives." Ey start, Hotch nodding. He knows this, he found out when trying to figure out why he didn't _like_ anyone. Not like Haley. Not until Beth.

"There's also some lesser known attractions, those being sensual and alterous/queerplatonic/quasiplatonic, depending on who you ask." Reid continues, eir foot bouncing a little. "Sensual is the attraction of being touched, and not in a sexual way. Being hugged, cuddled, kissed, holding someone's hand, those are just a few examples of what can encapsulate sensual attraction. It's the act of touch that's more important than anything else, and this is usually put with sexual and romantic attractions, but is definitely its own attraction."

Hotch nods again. "And that one with three different names?" So far nothing really has touched upon whatever is boiling in his sternum and it _bothers_ him. It's not the same feeling that he has for Beth, that's for sure. Not quite.

"Oh, alterous? That's an interesting one." Reid hums. "How to explain this. It's not platonic, nor is it romantic, but sort of the nebulous void between them. It's an attraction that isn't inherently platonic or romantic. It's something else completely. Ah!" Reid puts both feet on the ground and stands up in excitement. "Nonbinary is an umbrella term for people who don't identify as strictly male or female, right?" Hotch nods. "But some identities under that umbrella _do_ identify, in part, with male or female." Hotch nods again. "Alterous is like that! It's not platonic or romantic, but can _lean_ in those directions or develop into those attractions."

That something in his sternum sings in green and yellow.

**Author's Note:**

> I accidentally made Hotch polyam???? But like, ok, here's the thing. It's only alterously. I might write more abt him realizing "oh i had an alterous crush on them" but idk. If yalls have a prompt for this amazingly queer universe, tell me. I love writing these spectacular peeps :)


End file.
